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East Devon WatchPosted on
12 Jan 2018Posted under
Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Inequality, NHS (local)Our NHS
Category Archives: Austerity cuts
Our NHS
Infrastructure: Shortfall of £270m over period of Local Plan says external auditor
“Appendix A page 39
Click to access 180118bpauditgovernaceoperationalrisk.pdf
“Current estimates show that there will be a £270 million shortfall in infrastructure over the period of the Local Plan. Changes in legislation are needed to address this albeit a CIL charging schedule review is underway and may improve the situation. Fundamentally the current system relies on funding from other sources and infrastructure providers and so pressure needs to be put in bodies such as DCC, NHS etc to help fund infrastructure projects in the district.”
Primary school children made to pay to play with school equipment!
“A primary school has been accused of segregating children in the playground based on whether or not their parents contributed towards the cost of sports equipment.
Those whose parents had paid for the footballs, skipping ropes and other items were allowed to play with them at lunchtimes, while those whose parents had not were excluded from the games organised by a member of staff.
Parents launched a petition online, accusing the headteacher of Wednesbury Oak Academy, in the West Midlands, of separating the children into “paid” and “unpaid” pupils.
“This has caused outright disgust from children, parents, grandparents, staff and suchlike,” the petition read. “The parents that have paid and parents that haven’t are totally against the separation of the children as this can cause upset, bullying and social exclusion among other things.”
After coming under pressure, the school’s governors quickly scrapped the system. “We have listened to the concerns raised and will be ending the scheme with immediate effect. We are a school that believes in putting our children at the heart of everything we do,” said Elizabeth Perrin, the chair of the school governors…. “
Find out how your NHS hospital is coping this winter
“Your nearest trust is Royal Devon And Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.
It has had to add 641 extra bed days so far this winter.”
Four million people affected by NHS cancellations and waiting times
“Four million people have been directly affected by NHS cancellations and long waiting times, a poll has suggested.
It also found the majority of the public (65%) believe the Government is badly managing the current pressures on the NHS.
And almost half (44%) blame No10 for the crisis, the YouGov survey showed….”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/four-million-people-directly-affected-11826172
Powerful new video: SOHS – Care Closer to Home isn’t Working
Should be required watching for everyone in Devon – made on a shoestring by campaigning group Save our Hospital Services. A starring role for Independent DCC Councillor Claire Wright – our only hope for common sense in East Devon.
Please watch NOW and pass the link to everyone and anyone, inside and outside Devon who can amplify this message.
May’s diabetes glucose monitoring treatment not available to all on NHS
“… For two years, George has paid £96 a month for the patch, plus a one-off cost of £133 for the reader. But, like many, he can’t always afford it.
In theory, it is now available on the NHS. On November 1 last year, the FreeStyle Libre patch was added to the NHS drug tariff, meaning it can be prescribed subject to local health authority approval.
But a postcode lottery seems to be emerging. Prescribing committees have given it the green light in Wales, Greater Manchester, Cumbria and Brighton. Hampshire and London committees are believed to be deciding in the next few weeks.
However, George’s clinical commissioning group (CCG), Cambridge and Peterborough, is among those that have previously said there isn’t enough evidence the Libre is effective, and George says he hasn’t heard yet if this has changed. …”
WE are paying for a £27m refurbishment of one entryway to Windsor Castle
Owl says: 150-250 affordable homes could be built for this sum – more if on council land. And remember – Windsor Castle is just ONE of the council houses that the Queen occupies! Not to forget all those “grace and favour” gaffs that her family and friends and senior politicians and retired politicians occupy:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/gallery/2010/may/18/coalition-government
“The scaffolding went up today and it is believed that renovations on the swanky new entryway will take around four to five weeks.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5247699/Windsor-Castle-cloaked-scaffolding-27M-refurb.html
East Devon – pay to pee?
Andrew Marr defends NHS and confronts May
“BBC presenter Andrew Marr confronted Theresa May over the state of the NHS, suggesting he could have died if he had waited five hours for an ambulance following his own stroke.
The political broadcaster, 58, who suffered a stroke in January 2013, pressed the PM on the crisis, which has led to thousands of routine operations being cancelled in January as the health service struggles to cope with winter pressures.
It comes after the East of England Ambulance Service apologised following the death of a pensioner, 81, in Essex who was left waiting nearly four hours for a crew of paramedics.
Appearing in a pre-recorded interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday morning, the Prime Minister acknowledged more needs to be done, telling the interviewer: “Of course nothing’s perfect and there is more for us to do.”
Mr Marr claimed funding was not the sole issue facing the service and said the cancelled operations were “part of the plan”.
Presenter Mr Marr challenged her, saying he would not be interviewing her if he had experienced the same delays following his stroke.
“If I’d been waiting for five hours before I’d seen a doctor after my stroke I would not be here talking to you,” he said.
“This is about life and death and up and down the country people are having horrendous experiences of the NHS,” he added, before asking what the PM would say to the daughter of an elderly woman who waited hours to see a doctor.
Mrs May replied: “Obviously you’ve raised an individual case with me which I haven’t seen the details of and I recognise that people have concerns if they have experience of that sort.
“If we look at what is happening across the NHS, what we see is that actually the NHS is delivering for more people, it is treating more people and more people are being seen within the four hours every day than has been a few years ago.
“But of course nothing’s perfect and there is more for us to do.”
On funding, it was suggested to Mrs May that she had done nothing to address increased pressure on the social care system.
The PM replied: “Well yes, we have done something about it, Andrew. I’m sorry, you’re wrong in that.
“We have put extra funding into the social care system and we have worked with hospitals and with local authorities to identify how we can reduce those delayed discharges, ie patients being kept in hospital when they shouldn’t be.”
Mrs May said the Government is working on its long-term plans for social care but would not be drawn on whether there is a need for a brave and radical look at how the NHS is funded.
Asked about whether she agreed with Mr Hunt’s suggestion of a 10-year funding plan, Mrs May replied: “Of course what we’re operating on at the moment is the five-year forward view for the NHS which is the forward view that the NHS themselves came forward with.
“They brought those proposals together.”
Pressed further on cash, Mrs May said: “You keep talking about the money but actually what you also need to look at is how the NHS works, how it operates.”
Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said of the PM: “She hasn’t got a plan to get those people off the trolleys and corridors.”
He added to the same programme: “Her only plan apparently is to promote this Health Secretary. They should be demoting this Health Secretary.
“If she promotes this Health Secretary tomorrow it’s a betrayal of those 75,000 people in the back of ambulances.”
Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson, performing at the end of the programme, appeared to show his support for the health service by wearing a t-shirt with the NHS’s logo above the Nike tick.”
So, who knows best? May or GP Sarah Wollaston?
“OPINION:
More money and tighter integration can save Britain’s NHS
The Chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, Sarah Wollaston, writes that integrating social care with health, and providing more sustainable funding, is crucial, arguing that “it is time to stop viewing health as a bottomless pit but rather as one of our greatest successes.
Investment should be a source of national pride. I cannot think of a better way for Mrs May to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS than by helping to make sure that it has a sustainable long-term future.”
Source: FT Online, Express p26
“A THIRD of Tory donations come from a tiny group of rich men who enjoy lavish dinners with Theresa May”
Owl says: The Conservative Party – DEFINITELY for the FEW and not the MANY!
“More than a third of donations to the Tories last year came from a tiny group of super-rich men who enjoy lavish secretive dinners with Theresa May.
Research reveals how much Britain’s party of government depends on a band of millionaires for survival.
And it comes despite Mrs May vowing in 2007: “To restore public trust we must remove the dependency of the political parties on all large donors.”
Labour analysed donations by the 64 people – 62 of them men – who attended ‘Leader’s Group’ dinners, hosted by the Prime Minister and other senior ministers, in the first half of last year.
The Conservative Party trousered £12.9million from these donors or their firms in 2017, Labour’s research shows – 39% of all cash donations to the Tories across the year declared so far.
More than a third of the dinners’ attendees were on the Sunday Times Rich List, which brings together the 1,000 wealthiest people in Britain.
And almost half were from the world of finance including hedge fund bosses Sir Michael Hintze, a billionaire knighted under David Cameron who gave £345,000, and Andrew Law who gave £604,000.
Financiers at the dinners gave £4.5million between them – while £3.7million came from Brexit backers.
Ferrari-collecting JCB billionaire Lord Bamford and his family, the 35th-richest people in Britain and prominent donors to Vote Leave, topped the list by giving £2.5million to the Tories personally and through their firms in 2017.
Major donor diners also included Addison Lee cab firm founder John Griffin, housebuilding billionaire John Bloor, and spread-betting tycoon and former Tory co-Treasurer Peter Cruddas.
Other attendees were oil tycoon Ian Taylor who rejected a knighthood in David Cameron’s 2016 ‘crony honours’, and Arbuthnot private bank boss Sir Henry Angest and Tory chief executive Sir Mick Davis – both knighted under Mr Cameron a year earlier.
The only two women among the 64 diners gave £328,000 between them.
Socialite, philanthropist and friend of Bill Clinton Alisa Swidler gave £87,000 while Lubov Chernukhin, the banker wife of Russia’s former deputy finance minister, gave £241,000.
David Cameron denied Ms Chernukhin was a “Putin crony” in 2014 when it emerged she had paid £160,000 for a tennis match with the then-Prime Minister and Boris Johnson.
The Conservative Party website boasts tycoons can pay £50,000 to join the Leader’s Group and attend private dinners with Theresa May and ministers as part of efforts “to defeat the rise of socialism”.
Despite David Cameron promising to publish regular lists of attendees, those for the first half of 2017 were only released several months late after pressure from the Mirror.
We revealed Theresa May dined on lobster and beef with several donors at a secret London venue hours after confirming millions of people’s benefits would be frozen.
No minutes of the dinner meetings are ever published, and the Conservatives refuse to say what is discussed at them.
And the meals are limited to a tight circle of ministers, with only Mrs May, Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond and five other Cabinet ministers taking part in the first six months of 2017.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said: “The Prime Minister once said her party needed to remove its dependency on large donors and that she would not be driven by the interests of the rich and powerful.
“But after having to wait almost a year for the Tories to come clean about who is buying access to her and her senior ministers, we can see that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“As always with the Tories, the real decisions are made with a small group of wealthy backers.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/revealed-how-third-tory-donations-11798246
“’Fat Cat Thursday’: top bosses earn workers’ annual salary by lunchtime”
“Independent study of pay gap finds FTSE 100 bosses earning more in three days than typical worker will receive in entire year
Bosses of top British companies will have made more money by lunchtime on Thursday than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, according to an independent analysis of the vast gap in pay between chief executives and everyone else.
The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies are paid a median average of £3.45m a year, which works out at 120 times the £28,758 collected by full-time UK workers on average.
On an hourly basis the bosses will have earned more in less than three working days than the average employee will pick up this year, leading campaigners to dub the day “Fat Cat Thursday”. …”
“Windsor council calls for removal of homeless people before royal wedding”
“The leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead – home to Windsor Castle, Eton College and Ascot racecourse – has demanded police use legal powers to clear the area of homeless people before the royal wedding in May.
Simon Dudley, the council’s Conservative leader, wrote to Thames Valley police this week seeking action against “aggressive begging and intimidation” and “bags and detritus” accumulating on the streets.
The letter, seen by the Guardian, follows a series of tweets sent by Dudley while on a skiing holiday in Wyoming over Christmas, in which he referred to “an epidemic of rough sleeping and vagrancy in Windsor” and said “residents have had enough of this exploitation of residents and 6 million tourists pa [per annum]”.
He tweeted that he would write to Thames Valley police “asking them to focus on dealing with this before the #RoyalWedding”. …”
NHS crisis isn’t a crisis because the government has a plan!!!
Health spokesperson David Willets says it isn’t a crisis – just a bit uncomfortable for patients who have had operations cancelled!
“A crisis is when you haven’t got in place mitigations and you haven’t got a plan to deal with it. We’ve gone into this winter in a way that we’ve never prepared before, so we went into the winter before Christmas having cancelled fewer elective operations than we had previously, discharges from hospital were at a lower level than they had been previously, so we were better prepared.
We’ve also set up a national, regional and local structure – if you like, a winter pressures protocol – which we are invoking now and we are monitoring a whole series of things, activity in the service and the pressures.
We are monitoring the weather alerts in anticipation of weather changes because we know that’s important, and we also monitor the seasonal illnesses like flu.
Asked if what was happening would feel like a crisis to patients, he replied:
I fully accept that for the individual that will be really very uncomfortable, but what we know is if we don’t have a plan in place and we don’t do this in a structured way, what will happen, as we’ve had in previous winters, is lots of last-minute cancellations which is really distracting for patients, it’s inconvenient, it upsets the plans they’ve put together with their family, particularly for elderly patients where their care needs are often quite significant.
He said it was possible that further delays to non-urgent operations could be announced. Asked if there could be further postponements, he said:
That’s certainly a possibility … Intention always is not to cancel patients or postpone patients more than once – that’s one of the principles we try to follow – but clearly it is unpredictable, we don’t know what the weather we do, we don’t know the pressures in the system, we’re taking precautionary action here. …”
MPs views on Local Enterprise Partnerships
A story from the Christmas break:
“… LEPs are business-led partnerships between the private sector and local authorities established with the purpose of steering growth strategically in local communities. There are now 38 across the UK, funded through Growth Deals agreed with the UK government, and ranging in size according to local needs.
Of the MPs surveyed:
62% thought they are effective.
11% thought they have no impact.
14% had never heard of, or knew too little to say whether they are effective.
13% thought they are ineffective.
The quality of LEPs has come in for criticism in the past. Some are seen to work well, where others lack drive and local engagement. A National Audit Office report in March 2016 found “LEPs themselves have serious reservations about their capacity to deliver and the increasing complexity of the local landscape, and there is a risk that projects being pursued will not necessarily optimise value for money”.
However, government continues to use them as a channel for local development and has provided additional funding direct to them. So for businesses they are part of the local support mechanism.”
Austerity – for some
lAn annual London-Peterborough season ticket now costs £7,864. In Germany you can buy an annual BahnCard 100, providing travel on *every train in the country*, for less than half that (€4,270, or £3,797).l
Austerity: Liverpool fire had only 2 first response fire engines – cut from 8 two years ago
Liverpool mayor:
“Car Park fire was reported to me at 4.45pm and I was told it was containable,it would have been if we had enough appliances responding,Chief Fire officer confirmed my view that 2 years ago we would have had 8 fire engines from 4 stations responding instead of 2 #cutscost”
Another nuclear plant in financial meltdown
“The company behind one of Britain’s biggest nuclear power projects has plunged to a £266 million loss citing ‘uncertainties’ over its future and the viability of crucial technology.
Japanese firm Toshiba said the huge loss incurred by one of its UK subsidiaries was due to writing off hundreds of millions of pounds of investment in the proposed Moorside plant, in west Cumbria.
It is the latest sign of financial strain at the Tokyo-based firm amid wider concerns over the spiralling costs and catastrophic delays that have beset the UK’s nuclear industry. …
It was envisaged that new nuclear plants at Moorside, Hinkley Point and Wylfa in Anglesey would between them generate a fifth of the UK’s electricity.
This may still happen. But right now, nuclear firms are struggling with the expense, stringent regulatory hurdles and costly project delays – just as the cost of other forms of electricity fall.
Toshiba won the contract to build the nuclear power plant at Moorside, on land next to the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing site.
But it was forced in March to place its US nuclear division Westinghouse into bankruptcy protection. Last month, it said it would sell Westinghouse for £4 billion. Troubled Toshiba is now in talks to sell its interests in the Moorside project to Kepco, majority-owned by the South Korean government. …”
EDDC Leader’s New Year message … excellent rhubarb crop this year
Summary:
We are wonderful, we are doing so much with so little … rhubarb … rhubarb… rhubarb … waffle … systems thinking … waffle … increasingly reliant on income generated from business rates …commercial mind-set in our decision-making … particularly management of assets …
No mention of the £10m (plus?) to be spent on its new HQ, of course.
Read it if you must, but Owl is still incandescent with rage about Diviani promising to be “lean, clean, green and seen” when they got voted in – instead of which we got profligate, mucky, muddy and opaque!
East Devon Watch 